[scott00]

Contractors pay self employment taxes in lieu of the social security and Medicare payroll tax, and as a result are eligible for both.

The health insurance situation is not great, but it's available through Obamacare. In my experience the actual cost is not much worse than employer provided, but the true cost is often subsidized, so employees don't always realize how much salary they are giving up for health insurance.

No eligibility for unemployment or workers comp though.